Twitter Fixed Bug That Exposed Email, Phone Numbers

Twitter revealed that a bug in its password recovery systems exposed nearly 10,000 users’ information, including email addresses and phone numbers, for about 24 hours last week. In a blog post the previous day, the micro-blogging firm informed users that their passwords were secure and no accounts were breached.

No problems reported

Michael Coates, Twitter’s trust and information security officer, said, “We take these incidents very seriously, and we’re sorry this occurred. Any user that we find to have exploited the bug to access another account’s information will be permanently suspended, and we will also be engaging law enforcement as appropriate so they may conduct a thorough investigation and bring charges as warranted.”

Twitter says it’s rational to check the security accounts even though the bug didn’t pose a big problem. In May 2013, the social media firm introduced two-step login verification for its website, which asks for confirmation of a login using a second device and an SMS message. In August 2013, it extended the verification to its iOS and Android apps too.

Twitter users can check if they have this feature enabled by looking through the “security and privacy” panel of the settings on twitter.com or through the service’s mobile app. The company said it has already apprised select users of the bug, clarifying that the users who were not notified were not affected.

Though the bug affected only a minor part of the Twitter community of 320 million users, it serves as an excuse to recheck security measures– something the company refers to it as “good security hygiene.”

Twitter now has dedicated GIF button

In other Twitter news, the micro-blogging firm released GIF buttons yesterday, allowing users to tweet occasion-specific animations. Such a move makes sense as around 100 million GIFs were shared on the platform last year. Twitter’s native GIF search will be available on Android, iOS and desktop. For the GIFs, the company is working with GIPHY and Riffsy. By associating with social media firms, they hope to make the feature so prevalent that they can one-day sell “promoted GIFs” to brands and marketers.

On Thursday, Twitter shares closed up 6.72% at $17.46. Year to date, the stock is down almost 26% while in the last one-year, it is down over 64%.